/Welcome to the � Federation/
On the *1st *and *2nd of June* Varia will host '*The Ecosystem Is
Moving*', a lecture by and worksession with Daniel Gultsch about
federated instant messaging, open source software and the sustainability
of open systems. This is the first one in a series of encounters under
the name /Welcome to the � Federation, /where we invite makers of
federated, free software, social media & messaging projects to Varia in
Rotterdam, to come and talk about their project.
*June 1st, 19.00 - 22.00*
introduction to XMPP and lecture by Daniel Gultsch
*June 2nd, 10.00 - 18.00*
hands on worksession on design and federated chat systems.
Please register for the worksession via info * varia.zone
Daniel Gultsch is the developer behind Conversations, an open source
instant messaging application for Android. In 2014, he decided to work
full time on Conversations and try to make a living from it. Rather than
starting from scratch with Conversations, he built it as a client for
the existing federated messaging protocol XMPP.
Since an XMPP messenger can, in a way, only be as good as the entire
ecosystem, Daniels work on Conversations also meant work on expanding
and improving that larger XMPP ecosystem. This work includes helping to
draft and implement protocol standards, such as OMEMO, a modern and
user-friendly end-to-end encryption based on Signal's protocol. He also
contributed code to other XMPP servers and clients in the ecosystem to
bring them up to speed with modern uses. Additionally, through his
critical essayshe is a vocal defender of XMPP and open standards in general.
Conversations is notable because, through its continuous focus on user
experience, design and security it has garnered a lot of interest for
both itself and the XMPP ecosystem as a whole. This makes it an
interesting example to talk about what the design field could
potentially contribute to critical software practices.
*Welcome to the � Federation* is grounded in a renewed interest in
'alternative' on-line services such as social media and chat. Through
meetings and worksessions the project hosts various events around
software projects that are working towards these ecosystems. A
particular focus will lie on those projects whose activities have
reinvigorated interest for their underlying protocols, in part by their
focusing on design, language and user experience (UX).
The Wtt�F question is to explore how arts and design communities can
play a supportive role in these processes by contributing skills,
knowledge, time and exposure.
More info about the first event:
https://varia.zone/wttf/conversations-gultsch.html
Background about federated instant messengers:
https://varia.zone/wttf/have-you-considered-the-alternative.html
More information about the project can be found here:
https://varia.zone/wttf/welcome-to-the-federation.html
Both gatherings will take place at varia <https://varia.zone>,
Gouwstraat 3, Rotterdam.

hey all!
saturday the 12th of may we do an open day, with informal presentations,
talks, worskshops and free coffe, tea and software.
More info:
http://varia.zone/varia-open-day.html
hope to see you there!
greetings!